Facilitators and Triggers of episodes of Depression (Guest Author post)

From my own experience depression can dog you like a black cloud on an overcast day which bodes no good as it’s sure to bring rain sooner or later. In contrast a Depressive Episode is more like lightning striking – it’s a violent shift in your emotional balance that hits you in a moment and lays you out for months.

You can have what’s clinically called “Low Mood” but which is actually borderline depression for your entire life without having a major episode but many people with “Low Mood” (myself included) are not that fortunate.

If bipolar depression is like a sine wave with peaks and troughs, as you go from one extreme to another, then long term depression with depressive episodes feels more like a straight line graph with irregular and sudden dips. You’ll feel down all the time and then a trigger will make you feel a whole…